The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hydrangea plant botanically known as Hydrangea macrophylla and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘SK5BUHIME’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Honjo, Japan during June 2007. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Hydrangea cultivars that have purplish-blue and violet bicolor flowers and compact growth habits.
The new Hydrangea cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Dancing Angel’, U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,140, characterized by its pink and red-purple bicolored inflorescences, dark green-colored foliage, and compact, upright-mounded growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is ‘Crystal’, not patented, characterized by its light blue-colored inflorescences, dark green colored foliage, moderately vigorous, compact, upright-mounded growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during the June 2010 in a controlled environment in Honjo, Japan.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by softwood cuttings since June 2010 in Honjo, Japan has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.